For the second straight week, Rickie Fowler’s caddie, Joe Skovron, won’t have to lug a hulking staff bag around the course at a PGA Tour event. Fowler teed off on Thursday morning at the Waste Management Phoenix Open with a Puma stand bag that pays homage to “The Greenest Show on Grass” with a few custom touches, including a yellow/green colorway, small recycling logos on the side pockets and a Puma logo designed around the grandstands on the infamous 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale.
Puma collaborated with Vessel, a luxury performance stand bag company, to create the custom piece for Fowler. During the Farmers Insurance Open, Fowler chose to use a different Vessel-designed Puma stand bag that featured palm trees on the side panels. Puma sold a retail version of the Torrey Pines bag for $600 that sold out within hours.
For the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Puma chose to release 10 exact replicas of Fowler’s bag with the same $600 price tag.
Last year at the U.S. Open, Fowler used a special edition stand bag that was designed around his amateur days and celebrated those players who punched their ticket to Shinnecock through local and sectional qualifying.
“You only see a staff bag at a professional tournament, or maybe in a mancave, but it’s not what most golfers use,” Skovron said of the U.S. Open stand bag. “We thought it would be a cool idea to carry a bag that most juniors, college players, and weekend golfers use instead of a staff bag that you only see on Tour.”
According to a representative from Cobra-Puma, Fowler plans to use additional custom stand bags at select events this season. With the rise in interest for special edition gear around each major championship, it’s very likely we won’t have to wait long for Fowler to unveil the next custom offering.
